The Liberals always overplay their small victories. It’s one of the factors contributing to their relentless drop in public opinion. Not only do they not know how to occupy the higher moral ground, they have no interest in finding out. The way they gloat and bray every chance they get, as if they’re still playing undergraduate politics and not actually holding the lives of Australians in their hands, is really ugly.

But it’s all they know. I’d imagine very few of them have spent any time in the real world, and they’ve certainly never been shown the benefit of displaying respect, even if it’s forced and insincere. Theirs is a world of one-up-manship and chest-puffing. They’re used to rubbing it in when they get their way, and whining and moaning when they don’t. And they’re constantly looking at ways to tip the odds so that they can get their way more often. They generally don’t know or care what victory they’re winning, or what the outcome is supposed to be. That moment of sweet arrogance is all they’re after.

Turnbull’s far from the worst of them. But somehow seeing it come from him is quite jarring. It’s a periodic reminder that he’s not the man we were sold when he took over the PM-ship. He’s just as much a dick as the rest of them.